Downing Street has said that the £450,000 payout for former BBC boss George Entwistle is ‘hard to justify’ as culture secretary Maria Miller urged stability at the BBC after two more senior executives stood down.

Former BBC director general George Entwistle is set to receive a year’s salary despite only holding the job for 54 days (Picture: Reuters)

Mr Entwistle is set to receive a £450,000 payout despite only holding the top job for 54 days before resigning in the wake of a Newsnight investigation which wrongly implicated a senior former Tory in a child abuse scandal.

A official spokesman for the prime minister said that the payout was ‘a matter for the BBC Trust’ but that the organisation ‘will need to justify that payment to licence fee payers’.

‘Clearly it is hard to justify a sizeable payoff of that sort, but that is a matter for the BBC Trust and it is for them to justify.’

Meanwhile, Ms Miller said that the BBC needed to address the failings that led to the botched Newsnight report.

‘The Trust needs to act swiftly to ensure the management and leadership issues are resolved, and that these failings cannot be repeated,’ she said, in response to an urgent question tabled by deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman.’It’s clear from the interim director-general’s interviews today that the BBC is looking seriously at what went wrong, where responsibility lies and how to address this in the long term.’

‘Ultimately, the only organisation that can restore the public’s trust in the BBC is the BBC itself,’ she added.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has called for Mr Entwistle to return half of the money (Picture: PA)

Ms Harman called on Mr Entwistle to return half the money.

‘The BBC Trust cannot justify a payoff of double the amount laid down in his contract. George Entwistle should reflect on this and only take that to which he is entitled,’ she said.

Earlier MPs also warned child abuse victims are in danger of being forgotten amid the storm currently engulfing the BBC.

The plight of hundreds caught in the Jimmy Savile and Welsh care home scandals was being overshadowed by the crisis at the corporation, they declared.

Campaigners said it was important that momentum – which has seen them receiving thousands more calls than usual in the wake of the revelations – was maintained.

Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘It is really important that we don’t lose sight of the real issue here – that thousands of survivors are coming forward and still feeling the effect of what happened to them.’

Coverage shifted on to the BBC over the weekend following the resignation of Mr Entwistle.